Started early this morning, our first tasting at 9am in the Syndicat de St Emilion. I decided to start with the satellites - St Georges St Emilion, Lussac, Fronsac, Montagne St Emilion and Puisseguin before starting to wade through the St Emilion and Grand Cru. Fresher samples certainly made a difference from yesterday which is good, nearly all made up some mileage this morning and have resulted in much better quality.
Overall the quality is better than I expected, good fruit, less bitter characters showing through. Many of the wines are showing well, though I feel some are more for the shorter term (they will start drinking earlier).
Just finished the Grand Cru Classe tasting at Villemaurine. A few juicy little numbers. Larcis Ducasse shone above most even though it was very modern style... it was good.
Now off to Lalande de Pomerol. An interesting afternoon. Started at the Syndicat de Pomerol (Town Hall) where there was about 60 Pomerols to tasted. I really liked Rouget and La Croix de Gay Tasted about 30 Pomerols before heading off to tasted Angelus at Chateau La Fleur de Bouard in Lalande de Pomerol. It was an interesting tasting as I tasted some new wines like Clos de Madeleine that only produces 750 cases per year and Clos Chaumont that we bought back in 2001.
From the Angelus we headed into Libourne for the Moueix tasting where we tasted Certan de May, Providence, La Fleur Petrus, Hosanna, Trotanoy, La Fleur Gazin and Magdelaine plus a few others. My favourites where Hosanna and Madeglaine and I enjoyed Puy-Blanquet St Emilion at the entry level.
Back to the car we took the Bergerac road to get to the Grappa tasting which was held at La Gaffeliere that was showing all Stephane Derenoncourt wines. Sadly I only got a chance to taste the top wines, Smith Haut Lafitte, Les Carmes Haut Brion, Domaine Chevalier, Poujeaux, Petit Village, Larcis Ducasse, La Gaffeliere, Clos Fourtet, Pavie Macquin and Beausejour Duffau before closing stumps at 6.30 with a craving for a beer to clean the palate !!
Pavie for Breakfast tomorrow at 7.30 am UK time…
James
